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Home > Trying to save $410 by DIYing

Trying to save $410 by DIYing

September 20th, 2009 at 02:39 pm

We have a half bathroom off of the kitchen that hasn't been usable for two years. We had a floating floor installed in the kitchen and bathroom, and because the toilet flange was slightly below the level of the new floor, it leaked. Every time we flushed, it'd send water cascading into the laundry room below. That's why we haven't been using it.

I know. We should have fixed it. But at the time, we were pregnant or had a new baby and tackling those projects was last on the list. So, we closed the door and it's like that room has not existed.

Now that I am seriously nesting and staring down the barrel of a second baby, I am feeling immense deadline pressure to get home improvement projects done.

I called the flooring installers to get a quote for redoing the floating floor in the half bath. I was floored by what they wanted to charge me for such a small space-- $500!!! And that's with $100 off for me taking out the toilet and sink myself.

Uh, no, I'm sorry. I would have paid about half that. So, I began tackling the job myself. I spent about $95 on supplies-- new jigsaw blades,extra floor tiles, etc.

I started demo on Wednesday. I unhooked the toilet and hubby was gracious enough to move it now that I am too preggo to lift heavy objects. I also inspected all the damaged floor tiles and removed them. Also easy.

While the toilet was out, I repainted the accent wall in that bathroom, using leftover paint from the accent stripe I painted in the bedroom in February. Looks great and it cost nothing.

Last night, I used the jigsaw to cut the tile. It wasn't hard at all. All that's left to do today is click the floor tiles back in place. Supposedly, this is easy, but we'll see.

If it does work out, I saved us $410, which is enough to replace two of our kitchen doors with more energy efficient ones, but that is another story...

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Trying to save $410 by DIYing”

  1. Petunia Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 02:45 pm 1253457936
    1253457936

    Good for you! Nothing like nesting to get those home projects done.

    We had our hardwood floors redone when I was eight months pregnant with Daisy. . . we did not do it ourselves but it did involve moving out of our house for a week.

  2. whitestripe Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 06:51 pm 1253472671
    1253472671

    fyi - my df is a flooring installer and sander - the $500 would have been their minimum charge for the day, as it was such a small space. obviously materials and labour would have been less but that is how much it costs for a business to run a day - they probably would not be able to do any other jobs after they did yours. we have to have a minimum charge, otherwise the days would get eaten up by tiny jobs Smile

  3. thriftorama Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 01:43 am 1253497405
    1253497405

    Well, most of that $500 was for floor tiles, because they wanted to replace all the tiles in the room, not just the ones that are damaged. I prefer to only replace the damaged ones and not spend $65 a box for 7 tiles!

  4. LuxLiving Says:
    October 7th, 2009 at 05:07 pm 1254935225
    1254935225

    Good for you doing this yourself!

    How else is life treating you?

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